Monthly Archives: November 2011

Comment by Durdana Irshad — August 26, 2011 @ 3:16 pmI feel that many aspects of religion are left to ones own interpretation and perception, to make it more personalized. The core principles dictated by a religion remain the same while the entire structure is rests on that frame work. The design of the building may vary for each person. Making peace is the core spirit that pervades through religions.

How an artist or a poet may perceive God or religion is also left to the individual’s thinking and there may not be much need to modify it..No one can be told that his way of understanding the personal aspects of religion is wrong, it may not be the best way but its not wrong nonetheless,as long as it does not prove harmful for the rest of the world.

Also, the sweet smiles of Mona Lisa were perhaps not so sweet after all. Speculations have it that this painting by Da Vinci was really the painting of Hermes and Aphrodite; merged into a single body. Artists are strange, eccentric creatures. Part of the definition of an artist is that he deviates from the standard norms, they may want to question it as well. It’s a trait of a creative person- that he questions.

I believe that as long as a person follows the directives of his religion, he can find peace within himself because the ultimate peace lies in faith for all mankind. Having a faith is the panacea for the human race.Peace within ensures peace without.

I am pleased to read your candid comments on the latest post. I have noted for myself for future articles that some main points must be elaborated more lucidly. I would make an observation on your first comment which says some aspects of religion are left to ones own interpretation, though all major religions do have this freedom and especially Islam where the difference between Shariah and Fiqh is an example in itself, mostly not under stood by some of their own scholars. Broadly Fiqh is the interpretation of Shariah, showing that inherent freedom. The point we want to highlight is that the problem also arises due to this flexibility, an inbuilt feature of every religion, but if misused, can result into extremism. Today this is mostly seen in Islamic nations but it has always been present in one form or the other, even what the Jews of that time thought they have crucified Jesus was a manifestation of the extremist tendencies developing in any religious practices with the passage of time. This feature is clearly available in Islam in the form of the institution of “Ijtihad”, as discussed above. Therefore one can conclude that there is a dire need to harness these tendencies, which is only possible if ignorance along with the lack of wisdom is not allowed to creep into any religious tradition at any stage, main cause of certain “isms” taking route into every religion with the passage of time. If God be willing, we will take this process of development in all religions and especially in Islam.

Same way in your second part of the comments we are confronting similar problem as far as the very concept of the divine Reality is concerned, this personalized god too is the main cause of the diversities resulting into many facets of one single Reality, a common tendency found in all religions. In Islam, Wahdat-al-Wajood, a concept extended by Ibn Arabi has raised unnecessary discussions and given birth to such diverse tendencies which might be one of the causes for great decadence in Muslim nations today, which requires detailed discussion at a separate platform. However it is evident that such ideologies were quickly imbibed and vehemently followed by already decaying religious philosophies in the west, as the term “pantheism”, is widely used which means same as Wahdat-al-Wajood. Rise of such tendencies in Islam is especially unbelievable in view of its clear percepts such as given in Surah Ikhlass, proving the existence of these tendencies in man because all religion, especially Islam invites man to contemplate and ponder over the great realities, all around making manifest, one single Reality. This was mentioned in the last article as the concept of “Afaq” as elaborated by Iqbal in his lecture in Allahabad.

This is a vivid example of how man gets lost even in his genuine pursuit of God, like in Islam, in spite of clear ordains emphasizing not only believing but professing the theme of the unity of God so precisely stated in concrete parameters leaving no place for any further developments. Yet one finds so many variants of this fundamental principle of Islam depicting clearly the disadvantage of adventurism in religious domains especially the very concept of the divine Reality.

Lastly what you have said is of vital value, one of the aims of all our endeavors, that all religions have emphasized the value of virtue and profess that service to humanity is the raison d’ etre of human existence then why religion itself and man himself is is the cause of all bloodshed and misery in the world. This is the purpose of all this discussion and in the coming discussion will focus on this question.